Deceptive Love by Anne N. Reisser Read Free Book Online

washed their hands, reminding him that they were going to be pressed for time.
    Dain directed Keri toward a luxuriously appointed bathroom, choosing to utilize the one attached to the master suite himself. She washed and dried her hands in a state of bemusement and no little trepidation. This was going to be tougher than she thought, with Dain in such close proximity for so long a time. Those deep green eyes were windows to an uncomfortably keen brain, one which could strip pretense away as easily as an ecdysiast peels away her gaudy garb with a flirtatious flip of a hip.
    She went back out into the living room, head high and chin tilted at a determined angle. He was waiting for her. He escorted her solicitously, giving her the feeling that she was a favored and slightly doddering maiden aunt, onto the sunlit terrace. He pulled out her chair, seated her, and took his place across from her. Keri immediately became defensively absorbed in the deliciously crisp green salad. He allowed her three peaceful bites before he pounced.
    "Take your glasses off, Miss Dalton." The order was fiat and expected obedience.
    Keri's startled eyes flashed to the hard face that watched her so intently, her own face unguarded momentarily and as shocked as if he'd ordered her to strip naked. Then her own defenses reasserted themselves and she sur veyed him coolly.
    "Why?" She questioned both his motives and his authority bluntly.
    His face darkened. He wasn't used to being questioned. He lifted his hand swiftly, and before Keri had a chance to jerk her head away, he pulled the glasses off her nose. He held them up and looked through the lenses, his mouth curling in a smile that held little amusement. He tossed them contemptuously onto the table between them, and they slid to a stop against the salt shaker. Keri's hand twitched as though to grab them, but with an effort of will she refrained from doing so. She looked at Dain with a perfectly composed face, lips thinned and prim.
    "Stop looking like an outraged old-maid schoolteacher, Miss Dalton," Dain advised her with asperity. "Those spectacles you've been cowering behind are nothing but pure glass. You don't need them at all."
    "No, I don't," Keri admitted serenely. "I have perfect vision." Now she took another bite of her salad, chewed it reflectively, swallowed, and began to eat steadily with outward composure.
    "You're certainly a cool one," Dain said with unwilling admiration.
    Keri could have told him that inwardly she was quaking like an aspen leaf in a high wind, but she managed to continue eating steadily. Each bite scraped down a throat that threatened to close tightly from tension, but no sign of her inward agitation appeared on her smooth face.
    Dain let it rest as they were served with the main course, but as soon as the servant had departed to the kitchen regions, he returned to the attack. "Why the charade, Miss Dalton? You could be an attractive woman, but you choose to masquerade as a fusty old maid."
    With a sigh of resignation Keri finished the bit of quiche she had been eating and put down her fork. "I prefer to keep my business and private lives separate, Mr. Randolph. I found that impossible when I appear at work in my normal guise." She continued with a defensive tone. "I am sorry if that sounds conceited or vain, but believe me, it is merely the statement of a painfully learned fact." She picked up her fork and resumed her meal.
    "Tha t’ s why the varied employment history?" he questioned perceptively.
    "That's why."
    Dain made no direct comment for a long moment, seeming to reflect on her words, and then he attacked directly. "I am giving a reception for the gentlemen of the conference tomorrow night. You will be there to act as my hostess and you will, by then, have shed this pose and be dressed in your normal style."
    "And if I refuse?" Keri's green eyes glittered furiously.
    Dain's face took on frighteningly ruthless lines and he spoke with menacing softness, "You will